Long-range multipolar potentials of the 18 spin-orbit states arising from the C(P3)+OH(X Π2) interaction

Electronic nonadiabatic effects in low temperature radical-radical reactions. I. C(3P) + OH(2Π)

The formation of collision complexes, as a first step towards reaction, in collisions between two open-electronic shell radicals is treated within an adiabatic channel approach. Adiabatic channel potentials are constructed on the basis of asymptotic electrostatic, induction, dispersion, and exchange interactions, accounting for spin-orbit coupling within the multitude of electronic states arising from the separated reactants. Suitable coupling schemes (such as rotational + electronic) are designed to secure maximum adiabaticity of the channels. The reaction between C((3)P) and OH((2)Π) is treated as a representative example. The results show that the low temperature association rate coefficients in general cannot be represented by results obtained with a single (generally the lowest) potential energy surface of the adduct, asymptotically reaching the lowest fine-structure states of the reactants, and a factor accounting for the thermal population of the latter states. Instead, the influence of non-Born-Oppenheimer couplings within the multitude of electronic states arising during the encounter markedly increases the capture rates. This effect extends up to temperatures of several hundred K.

A global ab initio potential energy surface for the X2A' ground state of the Si + OH → SiO + H reaction

We report the first global potential energy surface (PES) for the X(2)A' ground electronic state of the Si((3)P) + OH(X(2)Π) → SiO(X(1)Σg(+)) + H((2)S) reaction. The PES is based on a large number of ab initio energies obtained from multireference configuration interaction calculations plus Davidson correction (MRCI+Q) using basis sets of quadruple zeta quality. Corrections were applied to the ab initio energies in the reactant channel allowing a proper description of long-range interactions between Si((3)P) and OH(X(2)Π). An analytical representation of the global PES has been developed by means of the reproducing kernel Hilbert space method. The reaction is found barrierless. Two minima, corresponding to the SiOH and HSiO isomers, and six saddle points, among which the isomerization transition state, have been characterized on the PES. The vibrational spectra of the SiOH/HSiO radicals have been computed from second-order perturbation theory and quantum dynamics methods. The structural, energetic, and spectroscopic properties of the two isomers are in good agreement with experimental data and previous high quality calculations.

THE STEREODYNAMICS STUDY OF THE C(3P) + OH (X2 Π) → CO(X1Σ+) + H(2S) REACTION

The stereodynamics of the title reaction on the ground electronic state X2A' potential energy surface (PES)1 has been studied using the quasiclassical trajectory (QCT) method. The commonly used polarization-dependent differential cross-sections (PDDCSs) of the product and the angular momentum alignment distribution, P(θr) and P(Φr), are generated in the center-of-mass frame using QCT method to gain insight of the alignment and orientation of the product molecules. Influence of collision energy on the stereodynamics is shown and discussed. The results reveal that the distribution of P(θr) and P(Φr) is sensitive to collision energy. The PDDCSs exhibit different collision energy dependency relationship at low and high collision energy ranges.

Nonadiabatic state-to-state reactive collisions among open shell reactants with conical intersections: the OH((2)Pi) + F((2)P) example

Accurate wave packet calculations on the OH((2)Pi) + F((2)P) → O((3)P) + HF((1)Sigma(+)) reactive collisions are performed using a recently proposed coupled diabatic states. Adiabatic and nonadiabatic dynamics are compared in detail, analyzing the final state distribution of products. It is found that with the new surfaces a significant increase of the rate constant is obtained, with noticeable nonadiabatic effects. The inclusion of the spin-orbit splittings for the calculation of the electronic partition function produces an important increase of the reaction rate constants, yielding a rather good agreement with the experimental results. It is also concluded that spin-orbit couplings are also necessary in the entrance channel to describe this reaction.

Study of the C(3P) + OH(X2Pi) --> CO(a3Pi) + H(2S) reaction: fully global ab initio potential energy surfaces of the 12A'' and 14A'' excited states and non adiabatic couplings

We report in this paper ab initio calculations of the potential energy surfaces (PESs) for the four states involved in the C((3)P) + OH(X(2)Pi)--> CO(a(3)Pi) + H((2)S) reaction as well as numerical values of the rate constants for two states, 1(2)A'' and 1(4)A'' which show no potential barriers during the reaction. In contrast, the other two states, i.e. the 2(2)A' and 1(4)A' states, are energetically not favourable to the reaction as the first state has a potential barrier of 0.2 eV in the entrance channel and the former one presents long range potential wells and repulsive wall for carbon approaches near OH. The ab initio calculations of the potential energies have been performed at the multireference internally contracted single and double configuration interaction (MR-SDCI) level corrected for its size-inconsistency by the Davidson method (+Q), and using Dunning aug-cc-pVQZ atomic basis sets. Global PESs have then been generated for the two A'' states from an analytical fit obtained with the reproducing kernel Hilbert space method on a large number of ab initio points located on a regular grid in Jacobi coordinates. The title reaction is much less exoergic (-0.41 eV) than the one on the ground state and each state presents many extrema (four for the 1(2)A'' and eight for the 1(4)A''). From the configuration and energy of these extrema, different reaction mechanisms are suggested depending on the collision energy. Quasi-classical trajectory calculations on these global PESs have been used to estimate reactive cross-sections as functions of the collision energy and thermal rate constant as a function of the temperature. The weighted rate constant for each state, i.e. including the spin-orbit population factor, increases with the temperature contrary to the ground state one. Nevertheless, a decreasing behaviour with the temperature remains between 10 and 500 K if we consider the total rate constant of C((3)P) + OH(X(2)Pi), sum of the three reactive states rate constants.